


If the Fates Allow

by katayla



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-03
Updated: 2010-12-03
Packaged: 2017-10-13 12:24:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/137318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katayla/pseuds/katayla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ted reflects on his and Robin's past as they decorate their apartment for Christmas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If the Fates Allow

There was something about Christmas that made Ted think of Robin in a way beyond "friend and roommate." Mostly, he'd moved on. He really had. But he'd also spent a significant amount of time dreaming about Robin. Imagining her in his life as so much more than a friend and roommate.

So, days like today, when they did things like decorate their apartment, made him nostalgic for something he'd once thought they'd have. Of a house of their own and a day decorating a tree with their two kids. He sighed out loud.

Robin looked over at him. "What?"

He shook his head. "Nothing."

"You sure?" And she looked at him for a moment. He knew she wasn't thinking what he was. She'd never had quite the same dreams.

He shrugged. "Just thinking about the past. Or maybe the future."

"What, like, the Ghost of Christmas Past?"

Ted laughed. "No, more like, what will Christmas be like next year. Or in five years."

"Five years?" Robin asked. She sat down on the couch, an ornament dangling from her fingers.

"Let's see. I figure Lily and Marshall will be on their third kid by then. Barney won't have changed. And you'll have your perfect wife and at least one kid."

"And you'll be off somewhere exotic, reporting the news, Ted said.

Robin got up from the couch. "Maybe."

"Maybe? Come on, Robin, you can't give up on your dreams!"

"People don't always get what they want, Ted."

"Yeah, I know." And maybe he wasn't missing what they'd had so much as he was angry at her for not wanting what he wanted, for stopping that particular dream of his from ever becoming true.

She smiled over at him, reached out and touched his arm. "But you'll get yours, Ted."

"I hope so." And, as he took a step back and looked at the tree, he almost saw it. A future with a woman who wasn't Robin, a couple of kids he loved more than anything, a family of his own. He wanted to grab hold of that dream, remember it through the rest of the year, carry it from Christmas to Christmas and make it come true.

And he wanted that for Robin, too. Not the same dream, but he wanted her to see a future of her own, one ideally suited for her. He wanted her to see that exciting life she'd always told him she'd have. To see the places she'd ramble on about late at night when he was trying to fall asleep.

"Hey, Robin," he said. "Come here."

She walked over to him and he put an arm around her shoulders.

"Don't give up on your dreams," he said. "Come on, this could be our last Christmas together."

"That's depressing."

"No, it's _exciting_ ," Ted said. "Think of all the possibilities between this year and next."

"I could get fired?"

"You could find your dream job."

"I could die."

Ted laughed. "What happened to looking on the bright side?"

"That was always your job." And she leaned closer to him and put her head on his shoulder.

"Well, then," Ted said. "Next year, it'll all be different. Next year, all our dreams will come true."

"Maybe," Robin said. And they stood there for a moment longer, staring at the tree.


End file.
